How Online Tutoring Benefits High School Students

Are you considering hiring a tutor? Everyone knows the benefits of conventional tutoring. However, online tutoring may offer even more benefits for high school students and their families. Thanks to online services, tutoring fits into a busy high school student’s schedule. The right online tutor does more than sharpen students’ minds. They also give teens the confidence they need to succeed. This flexible service meets teens where they’re most comfortable. Tutoring from home gets rid of the white noise at school. This frees students to focus on academic and personal development. Getting into college gets harder every year. Students compete over limited scholarships, and tuition keeps rising. It’s more important than ever to give students the tools to do and be their very best.

A Comfortable Interface for Kids and Teens

Millennials aren’t the only ones who spend endless hours online. Today’s high school students grew up in the age of the Internet. They’ve never known a world that didn’t rely on things like email and social media. Teens use their computers for communication, interaction, and entertainment. Lots of parents worry about how much time their kids spend online. Not all computer time is a waste, though.

The fact is many students feel more comfortable at a keyboard than sitting in a tutor’s office. Online tutoring lets teens enjoy tools they connect with fun and friendship. It cuts away from all the boredom and stress kids feel in formal settings. Working with an online partner prepares teens the future, too. Computers will always be part of students’ lives. They’ll play an important role in both school and work. Online tutoring uses teens’ love of tech to help grades and prep for tomorrow. Parents benefit from online tutoring, too. Digital notes help tutors share updates and reports. Parents can see what their kids have been doing and how much progress they’ve made.

Reduced Social Pressure and Distraction

Social interaction is one of the most important parts of students’ teen years. High school friendships can last a lifetime. However, not all relationships in school lead to great focus in the classroom. Sitting in a crowded room just isn’t the best learning environment for everyone. Students may like their friends too much. Maybe they deal with bullies. Many struggle with social anxiety.

Just being aware of other students in the room can hold kids back. Classroom activity directly affects a teen’s social life. No one wants to be labeled as the teacher’s pet. The fear of ridicule for answering a question incorrectly or asking a “dumb” question may squash a student’s chance to shine. Sometimes, it doesn’t matter if a student knows the answer. Social stresses win.

Online tutoring removes all of these distractions. Students talk with tutors alone. There are no social pressures or friendly distractions getting in the way. There’s no point passing notes when you’re alone. No one laughs when students take their time to thoughtfully answer questions. No one talks about a tutor’s pet, either. No one gets jealous. Teens don’t have to choose between school and friends like they do in the classroom. It doesn’t matter if a high school student has a fantastic group of friends, struggles with shyness, or falls somewhere in the middle. Online tutoring gives all students a space to focus purely on academics.

One-on-One Attention

One of the strongest arguments home-school parents have for their style of education is their classroom size. Home-school parents claim the key to their children’s academic success lies in their one-on-one teaching style. Home-school students enjoy extremely small classes, and the teacher has very few students dividing their time. This concept extends to public and private schools as well. Parents consider classroom size and student-to-teacher ratios before enrolling their children. Schools often advertise and promote themselves with these same details.

A tutor essentially provides the benefits of home-schooling without the draw-backs. Students get the tutor’s sole focus without giving up school’s social side. Every session allows the tutor to focus on a single student. The tutor prepares lessons and exercises tailored to each client’s unique needs, abilities, and strengths. The tutor doesn’t have to keep pace with the school’s curriculum. That means they can work at the student’s pace. Teens face less pressure to keep up, which helps them focus. At the same time, an experienced tutor helps identify problems before they become stumbling blocks. Direct interaction and the tutor’s exclusive attention mean every tutoring session offers students the chance to learn far more than they could during a regular school period.

Flexible Timing

High school keeps kids busy. They get up early to catch the bus. Then they study all day, go to extra-curricular activities, and then face homework in the evening. On top of all that, there are chores, side jobs, community activities, and family responsibilities. Of course, this goes without mentioning how busy their parents become. Even a regular day’s schedule is cramped. With sports games, drama performances, and art shows, families get overwhelmed. Cramming in a tutoring appointment in an office across town becomes a burden instead of an opportunity.

Online tutoring still takes a little time, but many programs offer very flexible scheduling. Plus, no one has to drive anywhere. Cutting out traffic frees more time, right? Just by eliminating the need to travel to appointments, online tutors open up their clients’ schedules. Any hour the student is in the home becomes a potential tutoring session. Kids who work Saturday afternoons can work with tutors in the mornings. Students with afternoon drama practice can meet with tutors in the evening after dinner. Little windows of time grow into big opportunities.

Confidence Building

Tutoring is all about building skills and conquering subjects students don’t have time to master in the classroom. It doesn’t matter if they find the classroom overwhelming or the teacher’s pace is too slow. Frustration and boredom have similar, damaging effects on students’ grades. Lowering grades lead to lowered confidence. This further damages performance in school. Tutoring stops the cycle and gives students a chance to show what they can really do.

The conventional view of tutoring emphasizes how students learn to overcome obstacles. However, a big part of tutoring actually involves building up a student’s strengths. Every high school student has academic skill. Many just don’t realize it. Tutoring nurtures potential. It encourages interests, and builds on the framework most students already have. By identifying these talents and honing them into practical, academic tools, tutors prepare kids to face challenges in the classroom with greater success. They even teach teens to take advantage of opportunities in regular schoolwork. These skills and techniques boost students’ confidence as they see the fruits of their labor. This gives them a boost beyond high school and into college. It’s amazing how much a student can accomplish if they believe in themselves.

Preparation for the Classroom

Tutoring can’t replace time at school. Yet it may be a critical factor in a teen’s ability to succeed there. Modern education puts a lot of responsibility on students to master subjects outside of the classroom. After all, fifty minutes three times a week isn’t enough time to read and digest all the books assigned in English class. Tutoring ensures students aren’t left on their own to struggle with bulky assignments. It prepares them for the next class discussion.

Most teens really can’t learn everything they need in order to ace the test through class time alone. Homework may help, but it is designed for practice, not instruction. A tutor fills in the gaps so a moment’s confusion in math class doesn’t hurt final grades. Think of high school as a building. School provides the foundation, and homework serves as the framework. Even with the best materials, however, a student can’t build a house if they do not know how to use their tools. Tutoring equips students and trains them how to use their new skills to build something great.

Conclusion

Ultimately, online tutoring can make high school more productive and enjoyable for any student. The right support takes the struggle out of both homework and class time. Although many students graduate without a tutor’s help, a few online sessions could boost essentially any student’s performance. Shy or popular, straight A’s or a few C’s, every academic strength or weakness is a good reason to hire an online tutor.

Academics don’t begin and end with grades. Regular tutoring sessions build confidence teens will need as they become adults. That includes academic trials like SATs and college courses. It goes beyond university admissions and higher education, though. Ultimately, high school prepares teens for living independently, getting jobs, and the rest of their lives. Tutoring helps teens grow into the best they can be beyond the classroom.